Prince was found with powerful painkillers on his person when he was discovered dead by paramedics inside his Paisley Park home.

Police attending the scene have told the detectives investigating his death the singer had opioid medication, thought to Percocet, in his possession when he was discovered.

The discovery has led to investigators bringing in specialist agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration to help with the case.

Investigators believe a suspected overdose five days before he died while on board his private jet was the reason as to why his pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Illinois.

It comes as US reports claim the music icon was “preparing to die for a little while” after being diagnosed with AIDS.

A music industry source interviewed by The National Enquirer messaged friends on April 19 to say the singer was suffering from the disease.

“He was in bad shape,” the source claimed to the newspaper, as reported by Radar Online.

“Doctors told Prince his blood count was unusually low and that his body temperature had dropped dangerously below the normal 98.6 degrees to 94 degrees.

“He was totally iron-deficient, very weak and often disoriented.

Prince died last week (Image: Getty)

"He rarely ate and when he did, it all came right back up.”

The magazine claims the Purple Rain star was diagnosed with AIDS six months ago after contracting the HIV positive virus “in the 1990s”.

However due to his Jehovah’s Witness faith he refused medical treatment instead believing he could be cured by pray.

Shock National Enquirer front page this week

“God can and will cure me,” he is alleged to have told friends.

Members of his faith are also claimed to have told him to ignore saying to the singer he had “everlasting life”.

According to the Enquirer the disease saw him lose more than five stone in weight with the source telling them: “His face was yellowish, the skin on his neck was hanging off and the tips of fingers were a brownish-yellow.”

Prince pictured in 2010

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Days before he was dead in a lift at his Paisley Park home in Chanhassen, Minneapolis, he had been seen making runs to a local pharmacy to pick up bags of prescriptions.

An employee at the Walgreens that served Prince him said: “We were all just shocked that he came in last night looking so beat. We said, ‘We are praying for you.’”